001and finance committee. Um we will now turn over um the the floor turn it over I'm sorry we will now turn the floor over to Dr. Battle uh for us to for her to give us a presentation on the budget. Thank you. Thank you so much um Dr. Na McKenna. Um again appreciate um having a few minutes during this budget and finance u meeting. Um just to kind of review and recap um where we are with our proposed FY26 budget. Um just like months prior um all of our conversations of course we're grounding in the tremendous growth and success um of Nashville public schools. I'm extremely proud um of the academic progress um that we've been able to make. We know that we also adopt a continuous improvement mindset. Know where you are but don't
002stay there. And so what we're hoping our proposed FY26 budget does is helps us to sustain um the growth and the achievements um that we've realized over the last few years and to continue to move the needle um forward in a positive way. So just to recap um tremendous improvement around um our growth scores three years in a row um academic achievement for our students across every grade level, every content area, which we know is very difficult to achieve as well. um historic graduation rate um and lots of other um accolades and celebrations on behalf of the district. So as we thought about that um throughout this operating um year um we had an opportunity to u work closely with the school board um to adopt um our FY26 budget priorities. Um so on the
003left side of the screen, this is all just a reminder um um of information. We had our three budget priorities from last school year um for FY25 and this year we have four adopted um budget priorities again in no specific order, no rank order per se. Um but continuity of operations, continuing strategic investments, those are our investments from our ESSER to our operating budget. Um strategic employee compensation as well as comprehensive safety and security planning. Um and so after th those budget priorities were adopted um by the board, my team and I went back um and began to build out our proposed um budget that was prior to um the mayor's state uh metro address. Um and since then we've gone back um to align the actual um investment number to those um budget priorities.
004Um so I just want to recap again those FY2526 budget priorities. Um, of course, we're always kind of starting with our FY25 operating um budget and the priority investments that were included um during that budget cycle. Um, under the first category, these align to the strategic priorities of the board. We have our continuity of operations um budget. At a high level, um what you will see inside of that budget, I'll turn it over to Chief Robles um here in a few moments. um you'll see the inflationary and contractural rate increases um that are part of um every budget just simply how much it costs us to operate at the same level next year um that we're operating this year. Um you will see exceptional education English learners uh student supports. We've seen um an increase
005um need and the unique um learning needs of our um students across um our district. Um you also see textbook adoption. It has been our priority um as administration and as a school board to fully adopt our highquality instructional materials. Um and then step increases. As a reminder, we um shifted the way in which we budgeted for step increases a few years back which we're extremely proud of. That has been very um instrumental to us particularly as we're retaining and recruiting um highquality um educators in including the step increases as a part of our continuity of operations budget. Um after that you'll see our ESSER bridge and our operating budget as a reminder. Um a few years ago as we were navigating um the pandemic just like our colleagues all across the country we u
006went through three rounds of non-recurring um ESSER um funds. Um collectively we realized over around $423 million if I've got my numbers my if my math is math incorrectly um today. So, we have um leveraged the majority of those funds in non-recurring ways. Um we've shaved that down to about um 77, which you'll see here, is $66 million um in um our budget requests um based upon some return on investment where we're seeing acceleration. And part of that goal was to respond to the distractions caused by the pandemic. But of course, once you do that, you want to continue those efforts um as we move forward. Um you'll see um here some of the key investments around our college and career readiness supports our university um MNS uh model again as you think about um
007having the highest graduation rate on in our recorded history um this shows up through those strategic um investments um there um the mental health and supports this was um probably the the priority um that we received feedback from from all of our stakeholders and responding to those needs of our young people and our staff. have um our community achieves portfolio um falls within that budget. Our scholars portfolio which is our promising scholars which we're going to talk a little bit more about in our board meeting which kicks off on Thursday. Um our accelerating scholars which is our high doses tutoring program and our enriching um scholars which is our weekend enrichment opportunities for our students. Um it also includes our safety ambassadors um in this um kind of heightened um world right now with the
008needs around safety and security. We've been talking a lot about our comprehensive layer supports um with safety and security measures and safety ambassadors are part of our um safety portfolio in our elementary schools. Um then there is our SBB, our school determined needs. Um we're um proposing to continue to support our um schools based upon the unique um needs of their school community. Um the next category is strategic employee compensation. Um this includes our salary step increases um for our um over our overall vision is around salary step increases. Step increases budget-wise are part of continuity of operations. It does include our COLA um for our uh MNS employees um as well as our certificate and support pension um and certificate and support health um insurance. So they fall into a couple different buckets, but
009the priority itself funding wise, the priority itself um falls under strategic employee um compensation. And then lastly, we have our safety and security priority, which again is additional safety and security measures. Um um in this particular case for this proposed budget, it will highlight um our high school um strategies. And then um as we've been doing the last few years, we've also included some aspirational um budget items. Um the items that I have highlighted here in FY2526 budget priorities. These are all strategies that are a part of our organization right now. How we operate um as as a school district. Aspirational investments are um above and beyond that that are not represented in our current proposed um budget. Um you can see everything from um how much it costs per 1% COLA as an aspirational
010budget item through our early learning centers to go together with MPS um our vision performing arts our SCYE programs um which are students who've experienced um interruption in their educational experience our student success centers our college and career readiness and advanced academics that is getting closer to our ideal space that does not include um the strategies the systems and structures we already have in play within the district. Um we um are seeing a need to continue to increase our exceptional education supports. Again, what you've seen on previous slides are the things we're already doing. Um our school health clinics, um facilities, preventive um maintenance. We're seeing this show up a lot when we talk about deferred u maintenance costs and really trying to get ahead of that. Um and then in future um beginning to
011reduce our school to classroom um associates ratio because we've seen such great success um with that transformation across um our our school district. So I am going to turn it over now to um Chief Robles who is going to walk us through the next few slides to really ground us um in the the outlook both at the federal, state and local um level as well as the line itemization um in our proposed DO nan summary um um uh part of our booklet. And um because you've all heard me talk a lot about lots of tensions that are showing up as we're proposing pulling together this proposed budget this year because there are just so many moving pieces. Um some of which we just don't have all the information yet because it's not been provided to
012us. So Chief Robless, I'm going to turn it over to you. Um and then we'll go from there. Thank you Dr. Battle members. Pleasure to be here today and um as Dr. Battle mentioned and uh obviously the proposal has been built around the priorities that you have set out. Um but the revenue aspect is also an important consideration as we have built um the proposed budget to meet the allocation that was uh placed on the ordinance and I think it's important to level set on some of the things that we see that are uh part of what we need to consider um going forward on on the local revenue side. Um there's some good aspects of it which is we you know the um city has a a a solid fund balance. Uh you know
013the the recent uh four-year property tax reappraisal is bringing some welcome revenue. Um and at the same time um there is the uncertainty on the current and emerging economic and political dynamics that are happening which could impact the local economy which could impact um the revenue that the city um collects over the year and therefore uh potentially um impact our revenue for next year. as well as um in potential inflationary increases that makes um what we purchase more costly um due to tariffs and other measures that are um that um have and could uh take place in the future. at the state level specific to education. We've talked about this in the past. The new legislation that was passed around vouchers uh that could have an impact that is beyond what we have estimated could
014happen and that would obviously have an uh a decrease on the overall revenue that we received through TISA. Um there are um potential revenue reductions uh due to the approval of additional state charter uh schools. um we've accounted for some of that but those um those are dynamics where the enrollment can grow and that could have an impact to us and as we've discussed in this forum before um the fiscal capacity factor which determine the split between how much is funded from the state versus locally um will be higher and we're right now estimating that that could have an impact as high as $10 million. We still have two cycles uh from TISA to determine what's their final allocation for next year. Um so uh this is a to be determined space um um as
015well but something that we will continue to monitor. And as at at the federal level uh there are risks around uh getting uh some of the federal programs and grants that we rely on uh to be reduced or potentially cut. Um which we'll continue to monitor. the ESRE liquidation extension which is was sort of the extended period to um spend some of the SR3 funds um we've gone through all the process submitted to the state the state has submitted it to USDOE but that that reimbursement has not been yet confirmed um you know from the letter in March that was received where all reimbursements were um stopped and um the house bill that has passed just now has $5 million for a federal school choice program which could also have an impact uh depending on
016what happens at the Senate. So there's a lot of uncertainty and variability at the federal level that we need to continue to monitor that could impact um future revenue um for us as a district and it's part of the consideration as we look at um how do we establish the budget um and as a Dr. battle reference. Uh we are celebrating um really historic progress um that our um educators have helped achieve. Our kids um um with their talents have been uh have accomplished and investment on continuing those um that work is critical and that's what drives um the proposal. And we're grateful that the mayor's proposed budget um it is the most significant investment that we've seen in education in the recent years uh with a 13% increase. And that investment is going to
017um continue to help us invest in our educators, our staff. um continue to strengthen and you know the academic supports through the investments that are so critical that have yielded a result. Um in this increase there's also a budget sustainability fund that Metro has established. Uh and we're looking to continue to provide the resources that um every student needs to thrive which has gotten us this far on the results and we look to continue to do that investing on the programs that have been proven to be successful. uh make sure that um at the schools they have the studentbased uh supports that they're needed while continue to invest in our um team members and our educators by um increasing compensation which we'll we'll discuss. Um, also, um, Mayor Okonnell's budget includes a $15 million to
018maintain a nurse in every school, which, um, is great that we can continue to do that program. Um, and the investment to continue to increase the, um, the school resource off officers at our schools and gradually continue to um, grow that program. So getting now into um the summary of what the proposed budget adjusting it to the allocation that was on the mayor's ordinance. Um what you see here is um at the top there is an employee compensation uh set of investments that amount to almost $45 million and that includes as Dr. Battle referenced the $9 million um so actually 9.6 million 9.8 million 9.6 $6 million, sorry, um of the salary step increases. That's part of our continuity of operation and that's reflected here. Um as well as our proposed 3% cost of living
019adjustment uh for all of our team members um which amounts to um $19.2 million investment. Um there's also investment on on continuation of the benefits uh in both health insurance and pension for our employees. that totals about $45 million. And then um what you see below are highlighted some of the summary changes that reflect the priorities that Dr. Battle um was discussing previously. We um have included uh the funds to make sure that textbooks are funded are of our operating fund which is a tremendous win. And that is the um $4.6 $6 million um that are included there, which is part of the continuity of operations budget that um Dr. Battle was um highlighting. Uh we also included the um safety and security priority, the investment on high schools safety and sec additional safety and
020security measures of $1.2 million. Um, we also have included um what is a an estimate and this is likely going to change given the new charter law but our estimate of what the pass through charters needs to be given the increase in revenue which is $13.5 million. Um and then we have um the uh reflected the uh investments and continuity of operations around the school-based student supports uh of 20.4 $4 million as well as the inflationary and contractual increases of $21.4 million. That is in addition to the textbooks and the salary step increase. All those are the key items on our continuity of operations and the esser bridge which is um the 6 uh $65.5 million that Dr. battle was uh speaking to with all the critical investments on our scholars portfolio um all of
021the uh and mental health investments. We are um taking a couple of actions to um meet our allocation which one is $21 million in targeted savings. So this is really identifying um um investments that we can dep prioritize either you know components of programs or contracts that we're not going to expand that allow us to um to forego those for now um dep prioritize them as well as budget efficiencies which is taking advantage of um when we have open positions in our system um there are um savings that are realized we given the example if a school has allocated um five positions uh at the beginning of the year to provide the support to students and only um three of those are hired by the time school starts and the other two you know we're
022able to hire them towards the end of the year. The the two positions that remain open for um that period of time represents funds that we can repurpose um and um we would do that um actively monitoring. Obviously, we're not reducing any positions uh that are allocated to school and I want to make sure that that we're clear on that point. So, there is uh no reduction on positions. This is really actively managing in the short term and medium-term um funds that become available to open positions. And if um we are um successful at our goal of actually filling every single position that we have at the schools um we will actively move to find areas where we can reduce that are not impacting the schools to actually were staying on budget but we would
023not jeopardize the resources and supports that are at the school level. Um, and that amounts to um essentially meeting the allocation of $132 million uh that is in the mayor's um current proposed budget. And I'll pause there and turn it over uh to budget chair McKini. Thank you so much, Chief Oasis. Um Dr. Nam McKenna will turn it back over to you. Thank you for the presentation. I will now open it up for questions on the board floor. Board member block. Sorry, I just I have two questions. One is um I um Chief Robbos, you mentioned a little bit the school level amounts um can you all talk just a little bit about the amount we have at the school-based budgeting level and um and increases there and sort of how that works. I'm sure
024I'd be happy to. And Chief OBS, if I missed something, please um chime in. So um in years past, we've we've done a kind of higher level breakdown of um our budget. The majority of our operational budget is actually um through our SBB um process. So um we try to make sure that our investments are as close to students um as possible. What really drives a school student-based budget um is their enrollment and the unique learning needs of the students that they're serving. So um there is a base weight um for every student um it's similar to what you see in the state um formally as well. There's a base weight um that is there and then there's waitings based upon the unique learning needs of students. Um every school has received their projections um
025for next school year. Um we we share those back in January or February um with our school team. So they build their budget based upon their projections um for for next school year. Um so the biggest adjustment if there were going to be one on the investments available to school teams to budget is just based upon enrollment. Um so one of the most significant ones is has been fifth grade transitioning um to elementary schools. So the our studentbased budgeting the funds follow um the student and so those school the elementary schools were funded accordingly. Um and then the next biggest shift if there were going to be one is based upon the makeup of the student um population. Um but we were able to in accordance with TISA, we did shift um our base weight.
026Um so every school saw an increase in the base weight for their students and then they're funded based upon um the needs of the student population that are being served in the school. So the amount of money from last year to this year at the school-based budget level per student at the base has gone up. Okay, great. Um, can you talk just a little bit about this the there were a number of questions at the council um and and I know we've had questions as well about just increases in insurance trust cost insurance cost and are there any things we can be doing from the insurance trust perspective or otherwise to try and keep that number closer to zero? I will I will admit those are all it's a I mean it's a worthwhile convers
027like for those of y'all who are on the insurance trust you have these conversations regularly for those of us who are not and who regularly one time a year see a cost that we weren't necessarily anticipating but that we know needs to be there because we're going to cover cost of insurance for our employees and that's going to mean sometimes more costs for the employee and sometimes more cost for us and sometimes both. But like what could we be doing to get that number closer to zero? Not I mean we didn't mean to laugh at you but it's just it's just more of a reaction of we've had those as you said we've had those conversations in this insurance trust meeting and so well we've been there. Yeah. And it it's similar to your own
028insuranceances um you know personally um as well. So, I'm going to let Chief Robles um respond to this because what we're seeing is a significant increase both um with our certificated um employees as well as support and they're managed from different bodies, right? And we're still seeing um significant increases with regards um to benefits. And then um I'll be happy to unless you want to chief roles talk about there's been some years past where I'll just say it up front where the trust did not vote to um increase at the rate um that we should have that could have minimized this just a little bit. It wouldn't have gone away because um the demands have just been so great. But Chief Rob sits um on the trust uh with a few of our teams. is
029made up mostly of um our educators um who are making um and some three board members um who um vote and make those decisions. Chief Bliss, thank you Dr. Battle. Yeah. So to start I mean I think for especially for the for the public there our support staff um is under the health insurance plan that the metro government offers and our certificated staff is under a insurance trust. that means that they're managing independently or separately I should say and what you see on the increases is reflecting part of that. Um overall cost of health insurance has gone up significantly. So every projection that we've looked at across the country other places and metro government estimates as well looks at a 9% increase next year. Um so that's part of what is important to recognize is
030that costs have been increas have increased um significantly. The amount that you see here is the employer contribution to support the premium uh increase to sustain the plan. And um we um as a as a school district well this board essentially supports that we cover the majority of the cost like 75% is on the shoulders of the employer versus employee which is a you know alleviates you know the the the cost on on our um employees of any health insurance increase. That's what the also the amount on the employer portion is significant when you're looking at these contributions. Um that said, we have been taking um a lot of steps to try to figure out how do you reduce the cost of um operating the health insurance trust for certificate without having to increase the
031premium. and in the trust right now um the the what the board approved is an increase that helps do two things. Cover what's the projected um cost increase in health insurance of 9% but then also help start building reserves. So as Dr. battle reference because of decisions made in the past. The reserve was utilized to cover some of previous cost and you know increases on health insurance and this increase beyond the 9% helps to rebuild that so that in future years you have some um flexibility to potentially cover the cost which is something that uh the metrop plan did this year. So they also projected 9% but they're using some of the reserve to do a 6% increase uh for for this year. So that is part of what um what is happening. Um we
032are working actively to try to make sure that the impact of the increased cost of health um coverage is as reduced as possible. um within what is on our control. Unfortunately, right now the cost of health care in general continues to increase and I think that we need um bigger powers to uh to also help us in actually making that more affordable overall. And and I'll also add for two years in a row um or has it been three we have three years in a row because of the deficit um the we've been leveraging um other operational funds and answer funds to close the gap to not pass on that cost um to our employees. And so, um, I just it's important for us to to also acknowledge while we've tried to maintain the 7525,
033um, responsibility, there have been three years in a row, we've essentially not passed that direct cost on to our employees. But, um, we're at a point now where we've got to get to a point of stabilization, um, including, um, some reserves and just for just full transparency. We've had um um some internal analysis of this as well as external um to determine um how we get there. Um and what we did get back was these are real um costs um with regards to the needs of um our employees. Hence um while we have this proposed amount for operating budget at the 75% rate. And then also to address that in the past we have had um to cover $8 million that we did not pass on to employees of a deficit before and I say
034and 10 other so we've covered 20 million almost 20 million $18 million that we did not pass on to the employee for the insurance trust about 30 30 million okay 30 million well 30 18 since I've been on it. Um, so that's that's costs that we absorbed as a as a board um that we did not pass on to an employee. So that's a big chunk that that we have not leveraged and that we've made up for. And then also we have had catastrophic events that um we had babies in NICU for a long time. We've had people with you know increases of cancer rates have gone up that really have increased the costs that we have not passed on that we absorbed into the concentration of of keeping the employee things. So looking at
035it we have made some tough decisions but this is also the other effect that we absorbed a lot of that money. So it would not have the the premiums increases that we have done we have done only in the past 12 months and we have also minimize that impact and absorb that impact with other funds of up to $30 million over the past several years. Any other questions board member Bluff then? Anyone else? Board member Young. Thank you. Um, while we're speaking of of of insurance and the insurance trust, um, I think it got mentioned maybe at the at the uh, council's hearing, but something and I am admittedly ignorant of some of the process and discussions that have happened at the at the trust meetings, but Metro does own a health care system. And
036so I know with the Metro general government, they've got a partnership with General Hospital. And so I want to make sure that might be something we explore if the trust hasn't done that already. Uh to work at some cost savings and also benefiting fellow metro enterprises so to speak. I had a question on a on a on a on a 1% cost of living increase. I thought the number we were going with was $7.1 million for 1% from a slideshow back in March, but then I noticed it last week at the council hearing and then in this today on the aspirational list it gives 6.4. Is one of those leaving out nutrition maybe? Is that what that difference is or is which one is the true number? So it's 6.4. Um when we did the
037and my team correct me if I'm wrong here. when we did the original calculations, you build it based upon your current um employee roster. Okay. Um we have a lot more insight into it now that we've gone through our whole hiring okay um process which we've seen a little bit of a reduction in the overall percent cola for certificate and support. the team tell me if um yes okay that is it's yes it's is it's running the calculation with the most updated essentially file of everyone who is there actual current salary and that reflected that okay that makes sense and that's that's a that's a swing in in the right direction because I think it makes some other tough decisions this board will have to make maybe a little easier. Um I I you know
038we talked about some of the uncertainty with maybe federal funding and things like that. And um when I first heard what Metro Finance was kind of not suggesting but forcing on all of us with that additional 2% budget sustainability fund, I was a little taken aback. But as I've had time to digest it, I think it makes sense and it and it helps Metro along with uh building their reserves to look better for a bond rating as we borrow money to build schools and things. So I think fiscally we're in a pretty decent spot. And so um I do think that that Chief U and Dr. Battle have done a great job at putting together um what you can with what we have and maybe is the not the most poetic way to say it.
039Um, and so I think now that y'all kind of done your job of putting together a proposal to us, now I think the board we need to have some tough conversations and make tough decisions about is this what we are are are happy with or do we want to try and and and do a little better? Meaning I think the number I got um from I forget the exact date it might have been May 20th was the number of teaching vacancies we had. it was like over 500 vacancies um in teaching positions and that doesn't include the non-eing staff. And so at the end of the day, what does everyone want? What do they need? They need money. They need to pay their bills. And I think the only way that we can try and
040continue to make progress at filling positions is not falling behind um on on what we pay the employees. And I think 3% keeps us on track, but I don't I don't think it gets us ahead to try and help us out. And so I really I'm really going to implore this board to really think about um you know, are we ready to have and make some potentially tough decisions to get to a four or 5%. I think what what I just learned just now makes it a little bit easier. Instead of 7.1, it's 6.4 million. Um because when we look at you know as I've kind of pilledled through and sorry I've got different copies of different slides in front of me but as I've tried to talk to more the the front level staff
041on some of the things we we we're working on like with college and career readiness supports that's that's 6.3 million and then some of the small uh additional small projects and program programs at schools that's 11 million. These are coming from what's listed out in the Esser Bridge and operating fund. Um, you know, are we ready to explore what a cut in those would look like to get us to 4%. I'm ready to explore that. Um, I think if anything, it's good for the public to know and for our staff to know what does that cut look like? How what are the impacts it has? Um, so that I think everyone can can make an informed decision on what's more important. And right now, what's important for me is trying to fill our our teacher
042shortage and trying to make sure our our staff can cannot just stay where they're at or fall behind, but can actually try and start to get ahead, which they're actually not going to get ahead because without, you know, beyond our control, the insurance cost, and that's everywhere you go. And so when you factor in the insurance increase and even at 3% um we're we're still we're still not I think getting ahead with our staff and I want to make sure that we really think hard about what our priorities are and and I'm not I'm not discounting what some of these other programs are and they're all great but unfortunately we there's only there's only so many pennies in the pot and uh that's just all I ask of this board is is to really think
043about um are we ready to to have some tough conversations about what we can cut to get where I think we should maybe be and that's what I'll leave it at. Um I I realized there was not like a question for me to respond to the one thing I I did want to share. So, um I think um in the teacher vacancies, that's that's a running kind of total that is pretty typical this time of year because we have to kind of unemploy about half of those folks because of lensure and certification. So, it's really an artificial um number. They're likely folks who are be back with us um next school year, but by law because of how the hiring process works, um that's not a real real um true number. Um, in addition to
044that, I do want to just just for narrative sake, um, we have realized consistently for the last three years in a row the lowest vacancy rates that we've had um, in in the district. There's always going to be a need, particularly um, when you have such specialized teacher needs um, in in our organization. But we have I mean this board has done tremendous work in um helping us really dig in um to the the the vacancy needs where we typically do see them are in specialized areas like exceptional education um English as a sacred language. Um those are probably sometimes world languages um and there are some state laws that kind of prevent us kind of tie our hands on having full access um in in that regard. So just so we know what we're
045kind of trying to solve for. I just wanted to share that um as as context. I think um we got this we got our teacher vacancies down to below like was like 1% 2% um um last um last school year. So again significant step in the right direction. And I tell our employees all the time, um, you know, those significant steps matter, but we want to continue to take steps in the right directions to provide all the, you know, compensation and conditions that, um, we know will help, um, our wonderful educators thrive. And I appreciate that context. Um, and so maybe, and I'm looking back when when I had asked this, so maybe the better number would be the average monthly vacancy number. Would that be a better picture? That was around I think 234.
046So is that kind of a better picture of what we're Absolutely. And right now we have both well now that we've in the school year we can talk about this different but at that time we had both vacancies for 2425 and 2526 represented together. Sure. And that makes sense. And I think and and what you say, it's it speaks exactly to I guess what I think about when I have when I have someone in my neighborhood who comes to me and says, "Hey, I got a letter in April that my student didn't get speech therapy this year because they were they were supposed to, but they didn't they couldn't fill the position." Um, and I and I hear from other, you know, folks in our schools that and and I think you're right, it is
047or I know you're right. it is the more specialized positions, but it's also um the non-eing staff, too. And so, I appreciate that context. That makes a lot more sense. Any other questions? Board member Young. Oh, okay. Uh, board member Player. Um, I'm willing to have those tough discussions. I am skeptical about making the cuts to that. um for several reasons. One, the economic forecast that we're going into for the next year, God forbid. Um there is a recession. And also looking at for the future of each year I've been on the board, the cost of cola has increased roughly about a million dollars. So that's something that will go into perpetuity and it makes it tougher to make consistent colas into the future because we're also increasing it. We have made steady increases from
048uh or since I've been on board since November 2019, we have always made steady step and cola increases. Even during the pandemic when other school districts did not receive any cola and actually receive d reductions in force um we've been consistently given raises when other departments have [Music] um I'm willing to have those conversations with people truly understand the consequences of that and willing to make sure that we as a board are willing to have those questions have those consequences um be responsible for those in public and into our staff and also looking at the full picture of of the quality of workforce life that if we do increase if we do increase the cola that means we're taking away from something else. And how does increase the the work environment of those employees because
049we made cuts and then we have to put more on employees because of cuts we chose to make. And making sure employees understand that. In terms of insurance increase and cutting into the pay increase, there's always a misnomer that when you increase insurance, it cuts into the raise. It does, but it doesn't overtake the raise. And I want people to understand, we carry the bulk of the 75%, but that 25% increase in the premium does not outweigh the increase of the cola and the step increases of the employee. Does it chip in? Absolutely. Does it take it over? No. So, I also want to make sure we're having the correct context and narrative that when people say we increase health insurance, it totally wiped away my increase that it comes into but does not chip
050does not chip in all the way completely. Um, so I want when we have these conversations, I want to make sure that everyone understands the trade-off into doing this and the trade-off that happens in the school system overall going into the next year and that because of the cost increase overall makes the tougher decisions down the road. Um, I tend to be more fiscally conservative when it comes to things like this. Um, and I rather go slow and steady, but I'm willing to have that conversation, but I also want to make sure that employees understand that it's a whole picture because I've had conversations with leadership of thinking, oh, we save money on this end, so that means I can get a cola on that end. Totally ignoring that there was another deficit on that
051end. And understanding that, no, just because we save money in one area, that's going to cover the deficit, not getting into the amount of the cola. And so to understand that everything that it's it's a universal total approach that it's a balloon. If you pop into you know you press in one end another end's going to pop out. And so I just want to make sure that when we have that conversation that it's thoughtful that it's um com it's in a complete picture of everything that we have to manage and that um we have absorbed a lot but also it goes to the quality of life that we have in the classroom that understand that if we do make those tough decisions that there is you know in Murphy's law there's an equal and opposite
052reaction and that people understand that they're coming back well because we made this decision this cut then we're getting consequ quences for that. I'm willing to have that decision. I'm willing to make that decision, but also that the employees know for sure what they're also Oh, excuse me. That was disgusting. Sorry. That the employees um know what the result of that was. Now I'm going to talk and have a drink of water. Any other board member Elrod? Thank you. Um, in the spirit of being asked to look for what we would potentially possibly consider cutting in this very generic conversation, it sounds like you would like us to see what we think we could find for 1 or 2% additional cola. The largest bucket items is probably where you would have to go to. And
053so for that reason, I just want to make sure that we understand what some of these things are so we can have this conversation to our best ability whether it's today or at a future meeting. So can you Dr. Battle explain to us again what are the because it's the largest bucket item. What are student Oh sorry I think that's what you mentioned was the student success centers and college and career readiness college and career readiness. Sorry. Yeah, I threw out things. That's what she threw out. Excuse me. Sorry, my glasses. I'm having to take them on and off and I apologize for getting older. Um, [Laughter] okay. So, it was the suggestion was I mean that the Oh, she's looking at today's. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's what she's not. Okay. What was the suggestion
054then? Excuse me. March 25th numbers not the right or the the there was like college and career readiness support university of NPS. Yes. 6.3 million and then we have 11 million for additional small projects and programs and those were that would be on slide 11 if you have the March 25th uh overview where it kind of breaks down what is in Esser Bridge is what it's doing. It's breaking down that those numbers. Dr. Will you please explain those two things instead of I have suggestion? I absolutely will. I will um preface this by um I am not suggesting that we um make um um cuts in this space because I'm going to turn over to Chief Chen in a moment and you're going to hear specifically um some data points that are associated um with
055our u college and career readiness um um strategy including the improved ACT scores um that we've seen um the number of students who are qualifying for and leveraging university MNS um scholar ships. Um you're going to hear our K12 um ACT supports, just the counseling and advising. So all the things when you're talking about a historic graduation rate. Um again, so I'm going to preface this with this because these are all um strategies and investments that have helped yield um the results that we've been seeing. So Chi-Chan, if you want to share a little bit more around our CCR strategy. Absolut excuse me. Absolutely. Um yep, good afternoon board. Um I am happy to share a little bit of context on exactly what does fall into those dollar lines. Those departments both do report up
056to me. Um so just to I've just pulled up the budget in front of me so I have it in front of me. Again all of these are initiatives that are designed to support our schools and drive uh the work that we are doing to improve our ready graduate rate and our ready graduate rate overall. Um so some of the big uh bodies of work that fall under this are our ACT supports and our preACT program. So, making sure that all of our students get access to um ACT preparation, um our work-based learning programs, so the salaries that we use to pay for our workbased learning students and the infrastructure that supports that and makes that possible. Um all of the funding that goes into our early postsecary readiness opportunities or EPSOS. So, as you
057I'm sure you all know um in order to be a ready graduate, one of the ways that our students can become a ready graduate is by taking four of those early uh post-secary opportunities. So that's AP, IB, dual enrollment, dual credit, etc. What's customary in the state of Tennessee is to actually pass on the cost of those programs along to students. Um so if you need to buy textbooks for those classes, if you need to um pay for this test, all of that, all of those types of things, customarily districts pass those costs on to students. At MNPS, we cover all of those costs centrally. It's actually one of the largest buckets of cost that falls into this category is us paying for those tests and those programs. um all the infrastructure around our advanced
058uh I already said that um and then uh as well as that it's also would include things like um the continuity of some of those key programs that fall under gear up so funding college visits and those sorts of activities that support our students thinking about and preparing for college. I'm happy to go into any detail more about this, but that just gives you a general overview of what's in that bucket. Yes. And just for clarity, so we have to have that in order to land at the amount that's in their esser budget. So, we've been tracking every um dollar that is associated with our CCR strategy um by way of getting to the proposed budget that we have this afternoon. It sounds like I will need to review from the past, meaning what you're
059referring to because I'm sorry I don't have it in front of me. Um, but I think it's a a fine conversation to have. Admittedly, looking at it quickly, I don't know where we would find it. Um, but it's still an exercise that I hear that you're asking us to take. Um, but it's a very serious exercise for us to take a part in. Keep in mind that whenever we discuss these types of things, it potentially causes concern and panic or fear within our staff. So I want to be clear that we have of course no desire of any type of reducement of positions. That should not be a desire uh per se, but I can see how employees will be concerned about this um just because it's a possible cut conversation and it's not one
060that they're used to particularly from the past several years. Um, so I want to just kind of put some ease on that conversation, but I will have to go back and look so I'm more educated of what you're asking us to do. And I apologize for not having it directly in front of me. Board member Tyler. Yes. Um, one of the other, well, first, um, chair player, you mentioned how sometimes there can be a narrative that my increased health insurance costs cut into my cost of living completely takes it away. Do we know the burden that will be directly on our teachers paychecks? Is it going up for them this year 9% or is that what we are taking on only? The proposal is a stepping for certificated staff. Yeah. A step increase. Right now,
061the proposal is a 3% COLA as well as a $2,000 bonus that our certificated staff will receive, which on average will be about a 5 to 6% increase for certificated staff, which is different from when you're talking about 25% of your insurance premium going up. I think that's what chief player is, excuse me, chief player. Chief, chair player is referring to chief. Yeah. No. Okay. Um I I understand that. So I'm asking the kind of nuts and bolts question of we see that we are going to increase ours beyond the 9% our share for the insurance trust. What our average employee that is on the certificated plan will their portion also increase? Will they also see more money coming out of their Yeah. Because of the cycle it already it already um has has. And
062so of the percentage premium increase they'll see 25% we take on 75% of the percentage increase. Um Jorge or Lisa do either you have the exact about to the mic. Yes for microphone please. Sorry. And by by the way, as as Chief Spencer is coming, we send this information out well in advance to all employees for budgeting purposes. And we lay it out by single, family. Yeah. Individual. Yeah, there you go. So, the the range of increase for employees, depending on whether they're single or family, is $16 a month to $38 a month. Okay, that that was exactly what I was asking. So, $16 to $38 a month. um will be their insur their portion of the insurance increase per pay period. Sorry. Per Okay. So double that perically. Yes. Okay. For 10 months. Okay.
063So, our cost of living increase will be more than that per month. Okay. That's so that's one of the things we wanted to make sure we were looking at the actual numbers associated with that. We've already increased the premium. The premium went up January 1. Okay. And then um I really appreciated Chief Chen giving us kind of the breakdown of the college and career readiness. I know you mentioned gear up. I know that one has been a federal grant. Are we I thought we were still using that as grant. That federal grant did sunset. Okay. There are just key it's not the entire grant coming over to operating budget. Um these are key strategies that have yielded positive results um for our students. So just like everything else, we've evaluated um which of those strategies
064really work and produce strong outcomes um for for our young people. And so it's only those specific um strategies that allow us to do that. Okay, that sounds good. And then the another large bucket from the older looking at it was the additional small projects and programs. And I know you probably don't have those detailed in front of you, but I would love for us to get an opportunity to see what those small projects and programs are. They end up adding up to about 11 million. Um, and is that our small projects and programs since it is outside of the school-based deter out of the schoolbased budget out of the SBB because that's a separate bucket in 12 million. So I would assume that the additional small projects and programs that you had listed at
06511 were things that were in the support hub as opposed to different schools. No, it's it's a combination of both. So um some examples of those is the additional um technology support. Remember we are now onetoone um um technology um school district that means your infrastructure um has to keep up with being u onetoone. So to that additional technology support along with all the securities and all the things that are required of us being a onetoone um it is um the research and analysis um capabilities not um per se the peer partnership or um some of the other contracts we're not pursuing but additional um capabilities there. Um there's also support for um we're getting ready to celebrate some of this for our extracurricular um activities. So we've now transitioned our middle schools to under
066the state umbrella. Um now this costs money to be able to do this. We've been celebrating our our elementary schools um having soccer teams. You have to have equipment and resources that go along with that. So, um they'll that's a few examples of other small projects and programs that don't equate to as a standalone millions of dollars, but when you add them all up, um there is um additional funding that is required. Okay. Okay. Um I thought most of the technology supports for onetoone were in our um I mean I know that we have a line item for them always in our operational budget but most of them I thought were in our capital needs as well. Uh no so um there are pretty strict restrictions on what around your technology can be in capital
067versus your op what should be in your operating budget. So so the IT line item in our capital needs budget what does that encompass then? So you want to Mara you want to respond and Sean if you want to if you feel free to approach the podium as well. Yeah. Uh personal computer devices are in the um in the capital approves budget as well. Um so I do not have what you guys are looking at right now to to look at the specific program. So if I get a look at that we can get back to you more information about what that is. Okay. Mora and remember we have two different technology departments. We've got instructional technology and then we've got our um infrastructure um technology team some more. All right. So um thank you
068Dr. Battle and thank you board member. We do have um technology for um replacement computers for teachers and for um staff and for students um spread among a couple of different spots including capital and operating as Sean said. We also have lots of other infrastructure items including our web service and okay um the as Dr. Battle said the security measures um to protect our our internet and and also to protect our schools that are also web- based. So um a lot of those licenses um are also involved um that can't be paid for in capital that have to be paid for and operating. So we've got a mix in both um just to to create that whole service. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, thank you. It's a little bit more. We can, as Sean said,
069we can give you a lot more detail, but that Yeah. No, that helps. That I appreciate that. Thank you. Sure. Absolutely. Thank you. Um and then so we the cost of the 1% COLA increase. Um I I appreciate that board member Young asked the question about the difference in the price for that. Um, since we had separated out nutritional services cola as a separate thing, would this 6.4 include nutritional services cola as well? I know it's not nearly as much, but I just want to make sure that if we're looking at numbers that we have the accurate one for everybody that we would want to cover. Does. It does. Great. Thank you. Um, it does, however, it does not include federally funded positions. So, we have to be mindful of that because if your federal
070grants cannot pick it up, then we've got to figure out how to cover that expense. So, it is everyone except for those that are covered through federal grants or they are used solely to cover the increase and then you lose all the resources that are available to schools um utilizing those those grants. Okay. Yes, thanks for saying that because I was going to go exactly to that point. It also increases what we already discussed which is your base for pension, your base for health insurance. So you have to recalculate everything up based on that. Yeah, which I I understand. I also think that it's um as much as we are struggling with all the inflationary issues that are affecting our bottom line and every single bucket that we have um so are all of our
071staff having to deal with those same exact things. And um the issues that the frustration are nationwide, not just for us and not just for teachers, but for everybody are that the increases in their paychecks are not matching the increases in everything else. And so I think it's important for us to have a conversation around um ensuring that we are looking at every possible bucket public a public conversation not just behind doors and then you present us a nice neat picture about it which is helpful but I think it matters to the people who work for MNPS that they feel like they're participating in it and that they understand the types of tough choices that would have to be made if if we were to be looking at that percentage or this percentage or something
072else. And so I think it's it behooves us to make sure that one, we're willing to have that conversation in public. Um two, also that that we come to an agreement as a board, whatever the majority is that that we own that decision because we had the hard discussions. So yeah, I I want to be quick with this conversation. Board member, sorry. Wait, are you finished? Board member Tyler, board member blop. Just I I think this is a good conversation to have. The the couple of things I would request that we see if we're going to do that is like if there's a proposal that is different than what is being proposed by the administration that the board members come with that make that proposal is here's what we would change. Here's sort of sort
073of like this conversation went around the college and career readiness in particular. Here's how it would impact students too because it's not just I mean certainly staff a number one right? We need to have staff in order to do the things we need with our students. Um but here's how it would impact students the things students receive. Here's how that here's how to impact student outcomes as well. not just like students wouldn't get this or they would get this but actually that might result in this kind of change and sort of you know something around student outcomes and that whatever thing we're we're thinking we would change. So for example if it's like well if we increase salary by x amount we're going to fill y amount of slots I'd want some evidence that that
074was true as well. So I just I think it's a good conversation to have, but let's have it in my mind rooted in the data and evidence of this change would result in this impact on staff, students, outcomes, etc. fully baked so we can and so we can all look at it ahead of time. Ideally, I agree. Board member Taylor, I had two things that I wanted to u say and just to kind of piggyback on uh board member O'Hara Block. Um we have this page with the uh aspirational budget investment opportunities. And I would like to see, you know, areas if we're interested in making cuts, just have it listed out in a similar way. um just showing because when you see the items that are on that page that we want to make
075investments in but we're not able to because there's not enough funding. Um we already know that basically we've made some cuts in order to do the 3% um cola that uh that we're doing. And then the other thing I wanted to say is that the reason why there's not enough money is because we have a state that does not adequately fund our district. And so we're being forced to make very difficult decisions when the deck is stacked against us. All right? And so to use my my spades analogy, I look at Dr. battle and what her team is doing. And they're coming up with books when they shouldn't get any. And we got the state as a dealer who's looking at the cards in advance and taking out all of the spades. They taking out
076all the face cards and then expecting us to still be able to win a hand. And I think Dr. Battle and her team are doing an amazing job. playing the cards that we've been dealt. I think for us as board members, all of the folks that are advocating for colas and and all of the other programs that we want to have operated, we have to come together to force our state to provide us the funding that we need to take care of our kids here in Nashville. That's what the real issue is. us trying to parse out a million dollars here and a million dollars there and cutting this program and that program because these programs aren't just just dollars on a piece of paper. These are people's jobs. I was a part of that.
077I was in family and community. I don't even know what the department was called, but it's gone now because we didn't have enough money in the budget to keep our department. And so that represented 15 staff people that were lost because somebody had to make a tough decision in order to keep our budget balanced while the state is sitting there with a rainy day fund that could take care of all of this. And so I just want us to focus our our efforts on um in the right area. I think it's important for us to look for efficiencies and ways that we can can provide an appropriate salary to our staff. The money isn't here in Metro though. The money is at the state level and that's what we want to try and focus our
078energy on. So that's um just my two cents on it. Maybe I need two million on it. I don't know. I'm going to have to study up my card games. Maybe you should have did a hearts analogy. You play hearts or uker. I play rook. I did not. Thank you. Any other board member? All right. Um since we are now nine minutes over time, we are going to um end this. I want to thank you Dr. battle and your team um for um being a available to answer the questions that we had asked on this board. Thank you for the fruitful discussion. Also, thank you board members for the the discussion around the budget. Um and what we want to see. Um I think it is incumbent that that we reiterate um Dr. Battle, if
079you could pull up the slides that the board voted on as priorities for our school district. Yes. So I I I just want to make sure that we iterate what our budget priorities are currently and what they have been over the last few years. That is the continuity of operations um continuing our strategic investments and those are the investments that we are getting a return on outcomes um that we are seeing and why we are able to soar as a district currently. um strategic employee compensation has always been a priority and then our comprehensive safety and security planning. Um I think this this budget has done a great job in reflecting those priorities that we can that we have seen. We have had board members uh discuss what are some of our challenges that we're
080facing. Um some of those challenges are still unknown to us. Um and we are constantly in flux. And so I want to remind um our board as well as our community um that there are still a lot of unknowns there and we are doing the best we can with what we have um related to this budget. Um I will challenge board members if there are areas that that you feel strongly um about seeing those cuts on um as board member uh Block mentioned um feel free to bring that discussion forward along with what the impact will be what the impact on outcomes students and employees will be in bringing those decisions forward. uh we need to make sure that as we dive into this we are having robust conversations where all of us are informed
081on what that looks like as well as informing the community. Um but until then um we will visit nashville.gov Gov.